Sims1 didnt have any possible relations, sims2 allowed sims to recognize family, and sims3 became a bit more flexible with setting up relations in CAS.

But surely they could still improve on this to allow for less conventional households?

What I'd like to see added to this:

-Elder sims being able to have teen, child or even toddler children.
-Middle aged sims able to have young adult children.
-adopted children.

-Servant relationship.
This means you can have a butler, maid, or other sim in the household live there as the hired help. Many players do this, so why not make it an actual feature?
It could allow for some unique interactions between the servant and the family, and if treated poorly the servant could pack up and move out.
By default the servant could be less part of family activities, and more busy with the housework.

I think the most important new one there would be "adopted child." If only so adopted children don't pass on genetics from sims they're not biologically related to like in TS3- I generally cut adopted children out of the family tree entirely with Master Controller at the moment so that doesn't happen.

(To me, at least, family trees in the current game are purely about genetics- there's nothing stopping you from still having a parent and an adopted child who isn't listed on the family tree behave like a parent and child, after all)

It might also be a good idea to allow the player to set an older sim as a grandparent, aunt or uncle to a younger sim without having to make a parent first- what about the people trying to set up a story that begins with an orphan living with somebody from their extended family, for instance?

I think it will depend on the aging process to begin with. I don't see an issue with an elder possibly having a teen at home. But a non adopted child or toddler, if they are trying to form some bit a realism to the game, wouldn't happen to a female Sim.

I guess it depends what you define as middle age? There's plenty of families that in their 40's and 50's, that have children in their twenties or thirties. Again depends on the aging process itself. Is in days or gradual? Can you turn the aging off or add days to a life stage? But, am I wrong to suggest that what you're maybe trying to add is teen pregnancy? If so. Expect that to be a mod option and not in the game.

In Sims 2 you can adopt, even elders. I didn't realize they took that out of Sims 3?

Now, what I believe you may have missed in Sims 3 is alien abduction and the adult males getting pregnant. Now that's what was unconventional! And then mods got involved and males could get pregnant, and females could too without a partner. You just used the Sim Blender, and any Sim could have a baby without any form of physical contact!


As for live in maids/butlers/nannies. If they are uncontrollable and nannies at least haven't changed since Sims 2. There is no way I'd want that in my game full time. Sure it sounds fun now. But wait for these employee's to constantly be cleaning or not, prepping food, even it's not needed. Interfering with a parents time of wanting to feed and bathe their own children. Then making sure these employee's understand where they sleep and not to get into their employer's bed and get mad if he or she is there. Which would make the employer get up. And me ordering the Sim to shoo the employee, or finding him or her a new bed to sleep in for the night. Now if you want affairs, that can be arranged through actions.

Plus, I'm very sensitive with giving up my eight Sim household (without cheats) to domestics or robots or big foots to begin with. But, I'd be okay if the player can choose that rather than saying no to the idea completely. Or make them controllable once they've entered the home.

Nanny/Maid/Butler is a good idea!!

The relationship I want to add is ;
1. Landlord and tenant
2. Blood-related guardian and minor such as the aunt and her nephew or uncle and his niece.
3. Relatives such as cousins
4. Best friends (I need to make my family to be best friends who live together as room mates. I want no strangers!)
5. Boss and employee (There are plenty of live-in employees in the real world.)

I can't think clearly now. I'm soooo hungry.

They didn't, anyone can still adopt in TS3. What I'm referring to is the notion of "biological child" and "adopted child" being treated as separate relationships by the game, with only biological children being able to pass on any of their parents' genetics to future generations. I mention this because that wasn't the case with adopted children in TS3- they'd often pass on their adoptive parents' genetics despite being entirely unrelated to them, which doesn't make any sense.

By extension, I'm also suggesting that in CAS it would be a good idea to be able to set sims with parents as either adopted or biological children when creating a family in order to determine how their genetic inheritance will work, rather than having to start with all biological relatives and then add adopted children later. This would allow for more varied family structures to be made from scratch, which is why I also mentioned the idea of being able to set aunts, uncles and grandparents without making parents first.

Also you should be able to make a married couple, and then have them have kids from a previous relationship that are only related to one of them, rather then only being able to have kids that are related to both of them.

Also true. Another possibility: Allow sims designated as adopted children to another sim to be assigned a second parent of the same gender in CAS, in order to allow for gay or lesbian couples with adopted children to be made from scratch.

For servant sims I did intend for them to be fully played by the player. Otherwise you might just hire such sims anyways. Its just that it would allow sims to know they are the servant to the family.